SUBSCRIBER ONLY: PG&E customers face big bill increases due to state regulatory proposals

Source: The Mercury News  |  By Author

This week, officials with the state Public Utilities Commission that regulates PG&E issued two proposals that would allow the utility to increase the amount of revenue it can extract from ratepayers in 2023. One proposal was fashioned by one of the five powerful commissioners with the state PUC while a second proposal was crafted by a PUC administrative law judge.

Under one of the proposals issued by state regulators, PG&E customers would face a jump of $28 a month in their utility bills, according to estimates released Thursday by The Utility Reform Network, or TURN, a consumer group.

The other proposal isn’t much better: PG&E customers would face a jump of $24 a month, TURN’s calculations show.

“Both proposed decisions adopt painful increases to monthly bills, far beyond the cost of inflation cap for bill increases advocated by TURN,” said Mark Toney, TURN’s executive director. …

“This was a sound rejection of PG&E’s proposal of only insulating 320 miles of power lines and burying 2,000 miles of power lines, which would cost $5.9 billion,” TURN stated.

The proposal from the administrative law judge correlates closely with TURN’s plan to insulate 1,800 miles of power lines and bury 200 miles of power lines, at a total cost of $2.1 billion, according to Toney.

“Both proposed decisions supported TURN’s position that insulating overhead power lines is faster and cheaper for wildfire safety than burying lines,” Toney said.